Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter 1

Everything around me was enveloped in darkness. Not a sound could be heard for miles away and the only thing I knew was that there was someone next to me holding onto my hand like I was their only lifeline. Although I couldn't actually see who it was, I knew that it was my brother with me. I could sense it through the familiar grip of his hand and, for some reason, I felt like that I would be safe from anything around me as long as he was by my side.

My heart suddenly quickened when I heard voices around me. It was impossible to understand what was being said, but I knew that it wasn't a good conversation judging by the tone. The grip on my hand tightened as a man's voice screamed something else and a sudden fear through across my body.

My eyes searches for the person that was creating this noise, but I found nothing but the blackness that I was bathed in. There was more yelling from a woman, but the man shrieked something loudly over her and my eyes widened. The blackness suddenly turned into a blinding green light that made me wish that I couldn't see anything. When I heard a sickening laugh surround me, I suddenly found myself screaming in fear and I closed my eyes hoping that it would all go away.

When the laugh went away, I couldn't shake the fear that had crept through my bones. The only thing I could hear now was the sound of my screams as they echoed around me. Then there was a sudden pounding on wood that sounded off next to me that made the screaming stop.

"Would you silence yourself girl!" an angry voice shouted. "You've woken up the whole house!"

My eyes flew open and I looked around to find that I was in a small, dimly lit room that I recognized to be the closet that I slept in every night. With a sudden rush of relief, I realized it had all been a dream - a dream I had every night, but a dream nonetheless. When I heard another loud tap on the door, I jumped and hit the shelf that was above my head.

"Get out of there now!" Aunt Petunia shouted. "Dudley's friend should be over soon and he hasn't even eaten breakfast!"

I opened the door of my make-shift room and grabbed a stool that sat just around the corner of it so I could reach the clothes that sat on the shelves at the very top of the closet. Before I slept in here, this room had been my aunt's linen closet. Uncle Vernon had to pull out most of the lower shelves so I could have a place to sleep, but luckily it was a fairly large space for a closet and just large enough that my small body could fit in.

After finding the old, worn out clothes that had once belonged to my aunt, I rushed off towards the bathroom so I could change out of the enormous nightgown that I was given to wear. Once I was changed, I looked in the mirror and sighed at how ridiculous I looked. The dress I was wearing was a dull pink with little yellow flowers peppered all over it. This horrid thing had once belonged to Aunt Petunia and it didn't look anything like the dresses that the girls at school wore - that was probably why I was laughed at so much. If that wasn't the reason that they laughed at me, then it was because I was related to the school bully, Dudley Dursley, who hated my brother and me very much.

Dudley was my cousin, but there was nothing that we had in common other than the fact that my mother happened to his mother's sister. Dudley was a mean, oversized boy who liked to prey on anyone that was smaller than him - especially Harry and me. He had perfectly combed blonde hair on top of his abnormally pudgy head and had a loud mouth that constantly shouted for more sweets from his mother. Dudley always got what he wanted from his parents - there were no if's, and's, or but's about it.

Vernon and Petunia Dursley were one in the same and I hated them equally. Uncle Vernon was practically Dudley in adult form - the only differences seemed to be the color of their hair and Uncle Vernon's large, black mustache that sat perched above his upper lip. Like Dudley, Uncle Vernon had a temper, but his was ten times worse and he always took it out on Harry and me even when it wasn't our fault. Aunt Petunia, unlike her husband and son, was a frail, little woman that spent the majority of her time nosing around the neighborhood so she could figure out the town gossip. Although she didn't like us at all, she seemed to be less violent towards us and only became irritable when we spoke directly to her.

Harry and I were completely different than the family that we lived with. Harry, my twin brother, was an abnormally skinny boy with jet black hair that always looked messed up not matter how much you brushed it. Behind his round, constantly broken glasses he had bright green eyes that were identical to mine. Although I was his twin, we didn't really look that much alike. I had red hair that stretched down passed my shoulders and I had no need for glasses because my vision was nearly perfect.

One more thing that we shared in common were our scars and there wasn't anything normal about them. Harry's scar sat in the middle of his forehead and was in the shape of a lightning bolt along with a light, short, and thin lighting bolt shaped line that went up his left arm. Mine ran from my right hand, up my arm, disappeared into my hairline, and then reappeared on the right side of my forehead to mimic the one on Harry's head. Although it was a long scar, it was very thin and very light - it was only a couple of shades darker than my pale skin tone.

"Come on Emily!" Harry shouted from outside of the bathroom.

I shook my head and focused on what was happening today as I pushed through the door and walked towards the kitchen to meet Harry where we would make breakfast. Today was Dudley's eleventh birthday which meant that Harry and I were going to be sent over to Mrs. Figg's house while he went out with a friend of his to have loads of fun without us. This year it was the zoo - something that I have dreamed of going to ever since I saw Dudley watching a show on television about how animals survive in the wild. Normally we're happy when we don't have to be around the Dursleys, but Mrs. Figg wasn't any better. She is an old woman that lives just down the street from us and she has to own about a million cats and takes the time to show us pictures of every single one of them while we're there. It's horrible.

"Emily - get over here and make the eggs and toast," Aunt Petunia demanded when I stepped into the room behind Harry. "And you - take over the bacon."

I nodded and stepped over in front of the frying pan were the eggs were already starting to cook. I flipped them around in the pan and shoved a couple of pieces of bread in the toaster with my other hand. Just as I let out a loud yawn, I noticed that someone else had joined our group - Dudley was finally awake.

"Where are they?" Dudley asked expectantly.

"Your presents are right over there," Aunt Petunia said with excitement.

Only a few feet away from the kitchen table was an enormous pile of gifts for Dudley's birthday. I stared at my cousin in envy as he walked over to them. As usual he began to count each one of them to see just how many of them there were. If I even received one gift from the Dursleys I would be grateful, but there was not chance of that unless it was something that Aunt Petunia had found in the lost-and-found at the school. It had been years since either of us had gotten anything from them, but we learned just to accept that they didn't care enough to even acknowledge our birthday.

"Thirty-seven?" Dudley said in disbelief. "That's two less than last year!"

My heart sank in my chest. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon were willing to give that many presents to a boy who hardly even deserved anything and they probably wouldn't even wish us a happy birthday when our day finally came around.

"That's my boy, always wanting more out of life than what he gets," Uncle Vernon said proudly from behind his morning paper.

Harry let out a sigh as he set all of the bacon that he finished cooking onto a small plate and brought it over to the table to set down for breakfast. I followed behind him after the last two pieces of toast popped up and the bowl that I had was filled with eggs. When I set them down, Uncle Vernon immediately set his paper down and forked out his share while we all listened to Dudley's usual temper-tantrum.

"This isn't fair - I should have gotten more!" Dudley whined pathetically.

He began to pout and forced out a few fake tears that had Aunt Petunia racing over toward him so she could comfort him.

"How about we get you two more presents when we go out today?" she suggested desperately.

"I guess that will be okay," Dudley said as he wiped away the false tears with a smile on his face.

Harry frowned as we both grabbed a piece of toast. It was pathetic that Dudley always got his way just because he made himself cry. Sometimes I wished that worked for me, but at the same time I would never want to appear as horrible as my cousin.

Dudley came over and sat down next to his father and piled his plate high with all of the food that we had made for them. When the telephone rang behind the counter, Aunt Petunia stepped over and answered it just as Dudley kicked Harry's leg underneath the table.

"Stop that!" Harry said angrily and kicked right back.

"Knock it off Potter," Uncle Vernon spat as he grabbed for his coffee.

"But Dudley started it!" I said. "I saw him kick - "

"Shut your mouth," he retorted immediately.

It never mattered whether Harry and I were right in the situation - Uncle Vernon always took Dudley's side. One time I got yelled at because Dudley pushed me down and I actually managed to kick his feet out from underneath him. This was, in Uncle Vernon's opinion, my fault because I shouldn't have angered Dudley in the first place.

"Oh no," Aunt Petunia groaned as she hung up the phone. "Bad news Vernon - Mrs. Figg can't take them because she broke her leg."

"Can't someone else take them?" Uncle Vernon asked.

"Who else is there?" she asked. "No one else likes them."

A sudden burst of hope shot through me - we weren't going to have to spend the day with Mrs. Figg! Did this mean that we might actually get to stay at the house without the Dursleys being there?

"We could just stay here," Harry suggested, obviously thinking along the same lines as me.

"I don't think so," Aunt Petunia scoffed. "I'm not going to let you two ruin the house."

"We won't do anything wrong," I begged. "Please - "

"Not a chance," Uncle Vernon said.

"Vernon, I don't think we have any other choice," Aunt Petunia sighed. "We're just going to have to take them to the zoo with us."

If I didn't think that it would hurt my chances of going, I probably would have screamed out in joy. This couldn't have turned out any better for us than it had right now - Harry and I were going to get to go to the zoo! I could hardly contain my excitement!

"No!" Dudley shouted out in protest. "They can't go!"

"We don't have any other options," Aunt Petunia repeated miserably.

The tears suddenly began to fall from our cousin's eyes as he screamed and carried on about how we were going to ruin everything. But not even that could have destroyed my day - no matter how much he screamed and cried, we were still going to be going.

Harry sat still in his chair with a small smile on his face as he looked from our aunt to our uncle. When he caught my eye, his smile only widened, but we both tried to hide our excitement before they could notice that we were happy about this decision.

"They're going to ruin everything!" Dudley cried.

"No they won't Dudley, I'll make sure of it!" Aunt Petunia said over his loud cries. "Mummy will make sure that they don't destroy everything."

There was a knock on the door that told me that Dudley's friend had finally arrived. When Aunt Petunia rushed off to answer the door, Dudley stopped crying immediately and shot both of us the meanest look that he could. Uncle Vernon's face practically matched his son's as he pointed one of his large, sausage-like fingers at us.

"You two are not to start any funny business," he said through his teeth. "Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir," we both said at once.

"And if you do," he continued. "I will keep you in your room's for a week."

"Yes, sir," we repeated.

When the kitchen door opened again, all focus went off of us and over to Aunt Petunia and the boy that was following her. My heart sank when I saw who it was that was crossing into the room. It was Piers Polkiss. During school last year, Piers had always made it a point to ruin my day on a regular basis. His favorite thing to do was make fun of the way that I dressed and the way that I looked in general. It was a usual thing of his to point out how ugly he thought my hair was and that I couldn't possibly have a soul because I was a ginger. At first, I ignored him thinking that he would just wouldn't say anymore if it didn't seem to bother me. However, it soon became a school trend to make fun of the ugly, ginger girl and her freak of a brother that no one liked.

"Please tell me that they aren't coming," Piers scoffed when he saw Harry and me sitting at the table.

"They have to," Dudley said in disgust. "No one else wants them around all day."

Piers and Dudley laughed at their taunts, but Harry and I kept quiet. We couldn't let his comments ruin our day and possibly jeopardize our chances of going to the zoo - after all, it wasn't often that we were given the opportunity to have a good day.

"Let's go," Uncle Vernon said shortly as he struggled to get his enormous body out of his chair. "Everyone out to the car."

Piers and Dudley ran out of the front door while Aunt Petunia rushed over to the counter in the kitchen where her purse sat. She gave us a look on her way back that made us stand up out of our chairs and run out to join our cousin and his friend in the back seats of the car. Harry and I were pushed into the very back seat because Dudley insisted that he sit closer to the door so he could get out before us.

Once we began moving down the road, Uncle Vernon began his usual speech to his wife about how idiotic the new employees at his office were. This, in my cousin's opinion, seemed to be a perfect opportunity to turn around and look at us both. Piers joined in after a moment and they just looked at us without saying a word.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Why do you have those scars?" Piers asked.

"We got them in a car crash," I said. "What does it matter to you anyway?"

"Because they make you look like freaks," Piers said.

"They don't need those scars to look like freaks," Dudley laughed.

"Would you just turn around?" Harry asked angrily. "We weren't bothering you."

"Just you being here bothers me, four-eyes," Piers said.

"Well, it is appropriate for us to take them to the zoo, isn't it?" Dudley said with a smirk.

"What do you mean?" Piers asked with a confused expression.

"We're going to the zoo," Dudley said. "They'll feel right at home with the other animals."

"Shut up!" I said.

"Don't you talk to them like that, Potter!" Uncle Vernon said. "And turn around boys - we're nearly there."

Dudley and Piers laughed and turned back so they were sitting right in their seats and began talking about a television show that they watched the other day. Harry and I let out a sigh and gave each other a comforting smile before we began to look out of the window.

It wasn't too much longer before we found ourselves parked at the entrance to the zoo. As soon as we came to a stop, Dudley and Piers threw their seat belts off and pushed the door open so they could run, or waddle in Dudley's case, toward the line. Harry and I moved quickly after them, but Aunt Petunia grabbed the back of my dress and pulled me back.

"There's no need to run," she said with a stern look.

When Harry saw that I had been held back, he slowed down his pace and waited for our aunt and uncle to get ahead of us. Once they did, he gave me an apologetic look and I just shrugged.

Ever since I was a little girl, Aunt Petunia was always trying to get me to stop "acting like a boy." She made it a point to say something at least once a day that pointed out how "unladylike" I was when around other people. It was probably just to humiliate me, but I tried not to let it bother me too much.

After Uncle Vernon paid for our tickets, I felt the full excitement of being able to go to the zoo as I stepped through the gates. All around us, as far as the eye could see, there were animals of all sorts that I had only ever seen before in books from school. The first ones that Harry and I ran to were the Bonobos. One of the small ones was jumping around at its mother's feet as she sat watching her child. They were some of the happiest looking animals, despite their captivity, and it almost made me jealous that they had someone nice to take care of them while Harry and I did not.

"Looks like your mother, don't you think?" Piers sneered at Harry.

Harry started to say something, but I shook my head to stop him. Getting in a fight now would not make things any better. Besides, what did it matter what Piers thought anyway? He was friends with Dudley, so there was no way that he was that clever.

It wasn't until the Reptile Room that we met up with the Dursleys again. Dudley was poking a glass cage hard with his pudgy fingers while the others stood around him looking into the cage to see what would happen. When Harry and I stepped over to see what was inside of the glass, the others walked away.

"This is boring," Dudley complained.

Once they waddled away to go look at some turtles, we stepped closer and saw the large Boa Constrictor that was laying inside. Seeing the size of the snake made me wonder why they had chosen such a small cage for something that looked so big. No wonder it looked so sad in there.

"Don't listen to Dudley," Harry spoke to the snake. "I think that this place is very interesting. He's just angry that you won't listen to him."

Much to our surprise, the snake moved closer to where we were standing and it began to look from one of us to the other. Maybe it knew that we weren't as mean as Dudley, or maybe it was just curious.

"Do you think he can hear us?" I asked Harry.

Harry shrugged and smiled back at the Boa Constrictor once it was at our eye level. Now that it was stretched out, I could see just how massive the snake really was. I can't imagine how Dudley could have thought that this amazing creature was so boring. Then again, he wasn't exactly the smartest of people.

"Do you get that a lot?" I asked the snake. "People bothering you?"

Harry and I jumped back when it began to nod. We looked at each other in shock and then back at the snake.

"I think it understood you!" Harry said in surprise.

"B-but it's a snake," I stammered. "I'm sure that it was just moving its head, that's all."

We stepped back to the snake and I tilted my head with the snake as it observed the two of us. Just when I was about to ask it something else to see if it really understood us, I felt a great push come from behind and I fell to the ground right on top of Harry.

"Look at the snake!" Dudley shouted. "It's moving!"

A great fury went through me as I stared at my cousin. What gave him the right to just push us to the ground whenever he wanted? It just wasn't fair that he always got his way. Besides, he already had his turn with the snake! Why should he get to look at it again when he thought that it was boring?

It was just seconds after he pushed us that the most unbelievable thing happened right in front of us. Dudley had his face pressed up to the glass, looking in at the snake, at one moment when, right before our eyes, the glass vanished and he fell face first into the pit that the snake was laying.

"Dudley!" Aunt Petunia shouted.

She was the only one that seemed to have noticed Dudley at that moment. The rest of the zoo turned and people began to scream as the Boa Constrictor that we had been observing only moments ago began slithering out of its cage and out into the open where everyone else was standing.

"The snake is out!" Piers shouted.

Everyone went into a panic and began to run, but Harry and I laid motionless on the ground where we had been pushed as the snake slithered right past us.

"Thanks."

My jaw dropped and Harry looked at me as the snake slithered out of sight. Did that snake just talk or was that just our imagination?

"Did it just - ?" Harry began.

"I think so," I said.

Then, at once, we both began to smile. We couldn't believe that this had just happened and the moment was only made better when we looked up to see Uncle Vernon fishing Dudley out of the cage.

"Into the car!" Uncle Vernon shouted. "All of you - now!"

Thank you for reading!